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Monday, April 5, 2010

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

(photo from my daughter’s 9th birthday- a tea party)

A friend of mine introduced me to “Marshmallow Fondant” over a year ago, and I will never simply “ice” a birthday cake again. It works just the same as store bought fondant, but tastes way better! (and it’s cheaper! Cheaper is good!) I’ve had several emails asking how it’s made- so I figured it would be a perfect recipe for the ‘i heart faces: dessert recipe” week!

Here we go!

To start, you’ll need a large bag of marshmallows, crisco, icing sugar and vanilla. (which I forgot to put in the picture, so just pretend it’s there! Clear vanilla is better if you have it, as it leaves the fondant a brighter white.)

Count out 50 large marshmallows.

Okay, well 49 will do….

Add 2 tablespoons of water, and microwave at 30 second intervals stirring in-between.

Not quite done yet…

It usually take about 2 minutes, but keep going until there are no lumps left.

Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla to the mixture, and stir well.

Now comes the messy part!

Get out your crisco, and grease a good 12x12 inch spot. You’ll need it in a minute.

Now, we’re going to add 1 cup of icing sugar at a time, and stir it into the melted marshmallow.

About 3 cups in, it should start to look like this.

Once it begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl and hold together in a more dough-like substance, you’re ready for the next step. Take off any rings, grab the crisco again, and cover your hands in it. Use lots. You won’t be sorry. :) Now pour the mixture out onto that greased spot that you prepared, and start kneading. Slowly add another cup of icing sugar on top and knead it in.

I used a total of 6 cups, but just keep kneading until it’s smooth, and no longer sticky.

It should be able to stretch without tearing. If it tears, it may be too dry, which can easily fixed by adding a few drops of water.

Lastly, you’ll want to roll it into a smooth ball, cover the outside of it with crisco, and have your helper hold open a plastic bag while you drop it in. (cling wrap works too!)

Twist it up air tight, and leave it in the fridge for a few hours. Or overnight, which is what I prefer to do. I always prepare the fondant the night before I make the cake.

Pick a spot on the counter, and spread out some cornstarch. Don’t be afraid to use quite a bit. The more the better in my opinion…

When you take out the fondant, it may be a little bit hard to work with. You can pop it in the microwave for 10-20 seconds. Try 10 first, and then another 10 if needed. You’ll be back to a sticky, messy, mush if you leave it in too long!

To colour it, start kneading and get it pliable and then add a few drop of food colouring on top. Keep kneading until the colour starts to mix in.

Not quite….

Getting there.

It should resemble play-doh, when you’re finished. Probably why the kids love this stuff so much!

There we go.

So once you have your colours ready, pick which one you’d like to use for the base of your cake.

I have my cake already iced, and I set it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so prior to adding the fondant.

(On top of my frozen pizza works just fine!)

This way the icing hardens a bit, you can smooth down any sharp spots with your hand, and you won’t leave finger prints when smoothing down the fondant.

While it’s in there, roll out your fondant into a large circle. You can measure, or play it dangerous and just go by eye. That’s what I do…

This is where the cornstarch is important. If you don’t use enough, you’ll go to lift it up and it will be stuck to your countertop. Lots of cornstarch is the key here. Don’t worry about it showing on the fondant, you can brush that off later.

Carefully lift your circle and drop it over the center of your cake.

Smooth it down gently with your hands, pressing out any air bubbles and smoothing out and lumps and bumps.

Here is where my lazy susan, and love of pizza come in handy.

Trim off the excess.

Now you have your base, and the real fun begins!

Here I did a simple polka dot theme. Where I rolled out several different colours, and cut out different sized dots.

Again: lots of cornstarch is key! :)

To apply them, simply brush one side with a little bit of water, and the sugar will act as a glue. Once they’re stuck, they’re stuck!

I used my pizza cutter to cut out some stripes, and here we have the finished product!

My favourite part: Cut, serve, and enjoy!

Here are a few other things cakes I’ve made using marshmallow fondant.

OMG I am so IMPRESSED!! You are so talented - yet make it look so easy! I love the R2D2 one...I have boys so I might have to try that out (I doubt they'd be big fans of the flowers and polka dots, but I LOVE them!!).

Oh my goodness! I always think that people who make beautiful cakes must have super powers. These are gorgeous! I wanted fondant on my wedding cake, but the lady who made my cake talked me out of it. She said it tastes horrible. I love the look of fondant though. This looks like the perfect solution for a better tasting icing!

Oh my goodness! I always think that people who make beautiful cakes must have super powers. These are gorgeous! I wanted fondant on my wedding cake, but the lady who made my cake talked me out of it. She said it tastes horrible. I love the look of fondant though. This looks like the perfect solution for a better tasting icing!

This recipe is awesome Jaclyn! I'm excited to find something that I could possibly do by myself that isn;t too hard! LOL...I will definitely be using this in the future for my kids birthdays! Thanks! :)~Tanya

Wow! This is great! Wonderful photo and tutorial. Thank you for sharing. I will have to try this out. I was telling my 9 yr old daughter who loves to model with clay, she wants to try this out. Today!! :P

Wowie! The R2D2 cake kicks butt! I'm going to have to try that very soon. And you are right, this fondant recipe actually sounds like it tastes good. Regular fondant is gross-- in which case, I much prefer to make a smooth buttercream.

Hi, i would love to try this recapie, but could you mesuer off the 50 marshmellows in grams for me, since we don't realy get marshmellows here I probably wont find big ones but only littel ones and littel paks. Thanks so much. Can't wait for my Miss Mars birthday to try this out.

This totally inspired me to make a cake for my daughters Fancy Nancy party last weekend. I was horribly nervous but was surprised at how easy it was to make and work with. Thank you for the inspiration!!!

I want to try this, but have a question... is there any reason why you can't separate them into balls right after making, color each ball, then put it in the freezer? It seems like extra effort to chill it, thaw it, work it instead of adding color while it is still pliable before the chilling. I am definitely not a caker so I have no idea if this is a silly question ;)

You could absolutely do it that way. I would recommend chilling it before you try to decorate the cake with it though. Atleast for an hour or so. It is SO pliable right after making it that it tends to tear and dent very easily. It's more stable after being chilled. But the colour- you can actually mix right into the melted marshmallow if you wanted to. :)

I came across your blog when I was looking for a fondant recipe. I'm always trying to come up with new creative ways to decorate cakes so I'd thought I'd give fondant a try. Thanks for posting this.~Christina

K, so my cake doesn't have the uber-professionalism of your cake, but I am still proud of my first attempt!!! I will write that next post featuring you next...thanks again for the great instructions!until then! Stay warm in this crazy Ontario weather...http://shimmerandtulle.blogspot.com/2011/04/its-time-for-veggietales-bday-party.html

My friend Sharon Abraham sent me to this recipe. I have dabbled in cake decorating before but got frustrated because of my difficult-to-work-with fondant recipe. I used yours for my son's birthday cake and it was fabulous! I just might go back to cake decorating again! Thank you for the help. Your family is beautiful!

I'm making cookies and cupcakes for a bake sale on sunday and i will have to make them on thursday. will it be ok to eat? I'm guessing I'll have to store them in the fridge right? also, when decorating cupcakes or cookies, how do you make the surface smooth first and then have different designs on it??? Sorry I'm a real noob at cooking/baking so I hope it turns out alright!! >__<Thanks for your tutorial and lovely pictures!! :)

My kids have been watching Cake Boss and wanted to try to make a cake - in searching for fondant recipes, my 14 year old son came across your page. We went shopping, he followed your awesome step-by-step instructions and voila...a beautiful cake! Thanks for sharing this inexpensive, delicious and fun recipe - we didn't want to pay for the expensive store bought (and not very tasty) fondant. You rock!Blessings

I love Fondant Decorated Cakes and have always wondered how to get about doing them...thank you for showing us how easy that is. Was wondering though....i dont like using microwave when it comes to feeing kids...can i melt marshmallows in a double boiler?? Thanks.

Thank you so much for posting the recipe and step by step instructions with photos. I am a 'first time' fondant maker and it really helped me with the process. My husband and I made a tinkerbell Cake for my daughter's third birthday and it was made so much easier by your post. I have passed the link on to a number of friends. Thanks again!Marnie (and Andrew)

Hey, thanks agian for taking the time to post this receipe! I know it is an old post, but I am going to make my 3rd fondant cake!!! I love making them, I just never have enough excuses to make them...so I get out of practice everytime :) I have made a Thomas cake, and a girly, flower/polka dot one :) My next one will be for my sons 1st birthday! a 3-tier sports cake (each tier will be a different ball)!! I am super excited about this one! Anyways...I just needed to re-learn (if thats a word) some tecniques :) thank you!!!